Two summers ago, we sent a Standard-Times education reporter around the country to study school systems that were doing things right.

We called the months-long reporting project that resulted from it "Building Better Schools," which cost this newspaper thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours in reporting and editing time. We did it because we believed New Bedford's public schools needed a radical change in direction and that real progress was possible if the community made up its mind to do things differently — and better.

At the conclusion of the project, which won a series of prestigious journalism awards, the newspaper held a public affairs forum on the topic. We even flew in school Principal Eric Ward, a charismatic and successful North Carolina educator whom reporter Charis Anderson had interviewed. He talked about his experiences in a district every bit as poor and as challenged as New Bedford.

As editorial page editor Jim DeArruda and I looked out on the audience at the Keith Middle School that night, it was disappointing to see that only a few dozen people (including only two members of the New Bedford School Committee and, I believe, only one member of the City Council) had decided to come.

Flash ahead to last Wednesday, when this newspaper hosted another public affairs forum, this time on a topic we have been writing about on this page for the past two years. The topic was the increasing trouble that boys in this community are facing — from dropping out of high school to failing to find meaningful work, from drug addiction to depression — and the need for the community to find solutions.

We brought in a talented, experienced panel that included Bristol County Sheriff Tom Hodgson and Juvenile Court Judge Bettina Borders, and a charismatic speaker in former Boston Celtics player Chris Herren of Fall River, who speaks regularly on his battle back from drug addiction.

It was great to see that more than 100 people, including young men and women from the YouthBuild program; school teachers from Dartmouth and New Bedford, community activists and concerned parents.

New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell came by after his weekly radio show. We also saw New Bedford School Committee member Joaquim "Jack" Livramento and former committee member Jill Ussach there.

But neither DeArruda nor I saw anyone else from the school board or the City Council, the Bristol or Plymouth district attorney's office or a host of other law enforcement or public schools or higher education administration who regularly deal with the issues facing boys and young men.

And that was a missed opportunity.

Everyone knows that our boys are in trouble. They are quitting high school, flunking out of college, unable to find jobs, getting arrested and serving time in jail much more frequently than girls.

The message that came from our panelists and the people who spoke at Wednesday's forum was clear: We have to teach boys how to be men. The reason is that nearly half the boys in this city will spend at least part of their growing up years in homes without fathers.

The stakes are enormous, and while this newspaper is happy to encourage and be part of the conversation, the boy problem is a community problem.

Others will need to take part, to see the problem as their own and to be willing to help.

We are urging the creation of a SouthCoast Boys Initiative that might best come from a consensus-building process like the one that grew out of the No Name Group discussions that began almost two decades ago.

We already have a great many community assets, from the Saturday Scholars program to the Fatherhood Initiative, the YMCA, youth soccer leagues, churches and numerous nonprofit agencies.

Other communities have produced their own initiatives and agendas to address similar concerns for boys and young men, and it would not be hard to adapt some of those ideas here, perhaps by seeking grants from private foundations and state or federal agencies who finance healthy communities initiatives.

The Standard-Times and SouthCoast Media Group are looking for partners in the conversation, for others who see our sons and brothers struggle and know that unless we are willing to extend them a hand, they will fall and bring others down with them.

Please join us.

Bob Unger is the Editor and Associate Publisher of SouthCoast Media Group, the publisher of The Standard-Times and SouthCoastToday.com. He can be reached by email at runger@s-t.com or by phone at 508-979-4430.